I’ve often heard, and truly believe, that building your own motorcycle from the ground up is a “biker’s rite of passage.” I haven’t been able to pin down the origin of the statement or if it has a notable person attached to it, but they couldn’t be more right.
This Evilution was born of a combination of desire, passion, survival, friendship, skill and a dab of raw human kindness. I’ve loved motorcycles from the minute my uncle Willie took me on his Ultra through the streets of Spanish Harlem. I graduated high school at 17 and joined the Marine Corps never having had the chance to learn to ride. After moving to Florida at 21 years of age, it finally happened. I bought a Kawasaki Vulcan 800 with help from my best friend. It started a fire that burns brightly to this day.
After several unfortunate mistakes and poor decisions, I ended up living on the couch of a friend and making money hustling and bartending. It’s from that couch that I realized I was obsessively watching reality TV shows about building motorcycles. Finally sick of the life I was leading I told myself, “These guys aren’t that much smarter than I am, I can do that.” I was in for quite the surprise.
I started my research and found two schools a few hours away. One included 8-hour days, out in 6 months. The other offered 4-hour days, and completion in a year and a half. I’m the instant gratification type and called the shorter of the two. In 2004 that school faced an enrollment so heavy that I was placed on a year and a half waiting list. The other wasn’t much faster. I asked the enrollment clerk what class gave the student’s the most difficulty. She said the welding portion frustrates a lot of students. If I had to wait a year and a half to start my new life I was going to lose motivation, so I decided to learn everything I could about welding.
I immediately enrolled in the full time welding course at Palm Beach Community College. My class only had seven students. That made the individual attention very easy for my extremely talented but quirky instructor. Over the next year-and-a-half I was certified in several processes including stick welding, MIG, TIG, Flux Core, plasma cutting and oxyacetylene welding, cutting and brazing. I figured this would make my success at tech school a breeze. Wrong again.
I’ll never forget the morning I left for Daytona. I was living with a co-worker in Deerfield Beach, Florida. My mother came down to see me off with $300 dollars and a bit of bad news. My father who had recently lost his job was being evicted from his home in Tampa. My mom sent him $50 for gas and instructions to meet me in Daytona. I had nowhere to live up there, no job, about $500 total and now had to figure out how my father and I were going to survive. Oh yeah, and class started at 7a.m.
The Marine in me came out and said, “Everything’s against you, find a way, we’re not losing.” I packed my 1998 Mustang with everything I owned. Being a transient bartender/hustler doesn’t usually leave much to pack. Heading up I-95 the plan included finding dad, feeding us, crashing one night in the cheapest hotel I could find, and living out of our cars until we got back on our feet.
Life apparently contained an alternate plan. I pulled off of the highway onto International Speedway Drive in Daytona Beach and stopped at the Hooters (enjoy the view, especially if life’s about to get rough). I called Dad and he was about 20 minutes out. We met in the parking lot and held each other for a moment. I think we both realized that things looked damn bleak. As we chewed on wings and drank draft beer, I filled him in on my plan. I had the restaurant’s phone book and a pen to make notes, in the margins of the hotel pages. As I’m rapidly discovering that we’re in deep shit, my phone goes off. It was a dear friend “Taxi Mike.” He gave me a phone number and name.
“Call him and he’s going to give you directions to his house, he said you can crash there,” Mike said. “He’s a friend I met in Costa Rica and I told him you’re family.”
“But I have my dad now too,” I responded.
“Just call him, his whole family is really cool.”
That next phone call changed my life forever.
I paused for a second not believing that there might actually be an out for us. I called the number and was pleasantly answered by a warm southern accent. “Well we’re about 20 minutes south of you in New Smyrna, jot these directions down and I’ll see you when you get here.”
I did and hung up with a 1000-yard stare I couldn’t shake. My dad was floored but relieved for the moment. He followed me south and we arrived at “The Compound.” I’d learn later that it was their nickname for the property. As we pulled up the father, who closely resembled a warm Kris Kristofferson met me in the dirt driveway.
I received a firm handshake and a friendly introduction to the whole family, close to a dozen on the property. They led dad and I to a room that had originally been setup for a massage room. One of the daughters graduated as a masseuse and used it as a treatment room. They had two military cots with dry towels, blankets, and pillows on them. It was a small extension of the house but had air conditioning and a separate entrance. Dad and I both had eyes welling up with gratitude and disbelief. This family took us in, sight unseen, complete strangers, on the word of a friend 400 miles away. What does any of this have to do with The Evilution?
It has EVERYTHING to do with it.
I was going to tech school while looking for a welding job and Dad was looking for anything to earn money daily. The father and oldest son had just acquired an assembled from parts, 1990 Fat Boy. The paint job looked like it was a huge calico cow. My favorite part was the two June bugs, mid coitus doggy style, very discretely painted on the bottom right rear fender.
I found out later the builder’s intent was for it to look like a horse. Nice effort bro, but no one, even one, saw that. The H-D on the tank shoulders were supposed to be the branding marks, but also got swallowed by the rest of the paint. They were having occasional issues with it, so I’d ride it to school and use it as a classroom-learning tool. Fixing it up for free was the least I could do to repay my enormous debt of gratitude.
I found a job welding full time and I got Dad a job at my school since they were looking for a maintenance man. It only took a few months before we were finally stable enough to move out. I will never forget or be able to repay that overwhelming act of kindness.
I graduated in January of 2006 and was promptly hired at a south Florida dealership. I quickly found my home for the next few years. At that time, people were buying toys like the world was ending tomorrow, insert foreboding irony here. I was making decent money and the dealership got me approved for my first Harley, a used gloss black 2003 Night Train. I rode that thing constantly, my car only started once a week to pick up my young daughter from school.
March 12th 2007 at around 10:30 p.m. A white Ford Explorer hit me. I woke up eight weeks later in ICU. There’s much more to that part of the story but this is more about the bike than my injury details. The important lesson is that I didn’t know if I would ride again. From my wheelchair, I would entertain myself by reading, watching TV and staying on Bikernet. I read every article, including the archives, when I came upon Jared Peterson’s “Enlightenment.” That article to this day brings very powerful emotions back instantly.
I was reading about someone who had been badly injured and survived to ride again. I started to cry at the keyboard as the details and emotions he was recalled mimicked exactly what was tearing me apart inside. I wrote to thank Bandit and Jared then, and I thank them every chance I get now. I couldn’t have found the strength to heft my injured leg over a Nightster a few months later, with my cane and colostomy bag still attached, just to ride around the parking lot, had it not been for this website and that specific article.
After recovering and going back to work, I eventually reached the position of Service Manager. From out of nowhere I got a phone call from the family in New Smyrna that saved my father and me almost five years prior.
“Hey Joel, Dad stopped riding because mama would rather play tennis, and he didn’t like riding without her.” The son quit riding because of a messy divorce and he got full custody of the young ones, so he’s not taking any more risk. He didn’t want to lose custody if he got hurt. “We can’t get what were asking for this bike and if we’re going to give it away, we figured it should go to you. You’d appreciate it the most and ride it.”
I sent the work truck to pick it up the next day. The cow was coming to daddy. It arrived in good running condition, but looked rough. Since I had last seen it they had painted over the calico with straight vivid black and installed a silver painted 80 inch remanufactured Evolution engine, the original was black and chrome. It only had 1000 miles on the re-man.
I took it for a spin around the block and right away felt familiar but unsafe. I pushed down on the handlebars; the front end bottomed out, and stayed there. It was an aftermarket front end I didn’t recognize, or wanted to use for that matter. I looked at what was being used as a wiring harness and while simple, also looked like an eventual fire hazard. If I was going to repair and upgrade these systems, I decided right there this was going to be my chance to build something I’d wanted since those days on the couch.
Everything from the handlebars and front end to the antiquated primary, transmission, and wiring were going to face a budget makeover. Budget because while I was employed and making decent money I had my bills, my child support and just life in general tying up funds. So off to the junkyard and my friend’s garages I traveled. What a treasure chest of random mismatched parts from the entire time and model history of Harley-Davidson. First, the rolling chassis needed to be found. My friend and co-worker had a bare ’99 and earlier pro-street Softail frame, a 180 purple swing arm and a pitted chrome low profile oil bag.
My boss was just as giving and enthusiastic about the project. He was a participant in the 2010 Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge. He had a spare set of wheels and tires for his 2010 Road King ready for a NASCAR style tire change sitting in his office. He said if I could make them fit in a Softail swing arm I could have them. As nice as the 28 spoke late model Harley wheels looked, I was going to find a way to make them fit.
Once the mismatched donations began to arrive, I started cleaning parts and making preliminary mockups. I began to see immediately that there was going to be a lot of “out of the box” engineering modifications needed to make these mixed year, mixed model parts come together smoothly.
The fuel tanks were transplanted from the donor bike, but neither they nor the oil tank would line up with the pre drilled mounts on the frame. Of course not! We solved those issues later. I was fortunate. We scraped together parts from my favorite three H-D model lines. The front end and wheels came from a Road King, the frame from a lowered Softail Night Train with forward controls stance, and the Fat Bob handlebars and hand control setup.
Our first problem was the front end. Using the 2010 touring wheels required me use a set of take off, late model touring lowers. I used the stock upper touring fork leg and installed it in a stock Softail triple tree. Everything was fitting smoothly until I installed the dual disc Brembo calipers. When everything was tightened down the wheel was binding almost to the point of seizing. Further inspection revealed that the Softail triple trees were just a hair narrower that the touring ones. I sent the legs out to mill .030” out of the inside of each lower leg. Upon reassembly the calipers centered perfectly. Hurdle one down with enough in store to fill the Smithsonian…twice.
I figured with the front end set up just about licked the back would just fall into place as long as the wheel fit in the swing arm, big rookie assumption. I didn’t take spacing, driveline alignment and rear caliper, rotor, and pulley spacing into account, as I’d soon get a big lesson.
This became my biggest challenge of the entire build. See, what looks like plenty of room to fit a 180-rear wheel and tire package, isn’t. It is, when you have the option to run a chain, and sprocket or some low profile, hot rod brake caliper and rotor setup, but we didn’t have those options. I had to run those wheels because first, it’s what I had, and second, I had already invested in modifying the front end to take the damn things. The late model rear wheel consists of three very specific components, each with very specific widths. They cannot be intermixed with other wheel components without over-the-top type modifications.
Here you see the rear wheel, the rubber isolator, and the inside of the pulley. My understanding of it is that Harley-Davidson engineered this final drive system to absorb some of the rotational force, sound and vibration caused by the compensators used in the later model bigger displacement drivelines. I’m sure there’s much more to it than that, but I’ll let one of you write to us to complete the technical explanation of how it works. I started to mock it up with a Softail axle and right away noticed that the axle wasn’t the right diameter for the bearings used in the wheel. Not a problem on the front because we used touring lower legs. The swing arm came from a ’99 and earlier Softail using the smaller diameter axle.
The axle needed to be addressed right away. I thought I could just change the wheel bearings to the ¾-inch diameter with the touring outside diameter, but I found out that the dimensions of the Harley touring bearings were of a very specific and proprietary configuration. No industrial application called for these dimensions outside of Harley OEM applications. So long story short, the bearings didn’t exist. What to do? Make it work.
Looked simple, almost innocent I thought. There are custom machined bushings that take up the difference from the axle to the bearing inner race.
Now I can fit through the natural swing arm openings and take up the slack in the wheel bearing inner races. Now we have that covered. Next, up, caliper and driveline alignment.
Once the wheel axle and bearing were now properly secured, we had to work on spinning and stopping. I had Brembos up front but I had room for NOTHING in the rear.
We cut it down to ¼-inch with a slightly oversized steel insert to absorb any stress to the base aluminum once properly torque down. We also had to open the clearance of the mount that attached to that swing arm tab. We were very limited in our spacing and had to be perfect in order to get our driveline alignment correct and safe.
After cutting the caliper down and making custom wheel spacers, we installed it and got to relive a previous fear. We raised the rear end up and tried to spin the rear wheel without the belt to check for free movement. The wheel refused to budge. I was nervous to say the least. Come to find out the late model touring wheel’s rear Brembo rotor is actually a tad larger in diameter than its predecessors, so it was hanging itself up on the inside of the older caliper. I was lucky in that Harley kept the same mounting points on the wheel, so all I had to do is run the earlier rotor on the later wheel. Some of you may have already noticed the rotor change in the mock up pics.
We had to use a late model Softail drive belt because it was the only one that would fit the narrow touring pulley width and still have the right length and strength.
Now that the front and rear wheels were installed spaced and free spinning, we could get to the rest. I needed a primary driveline. Hmmm where to find one?
So we commenced to gutting, pillaging and raping the poor donor bike for desperately needed items. The engine, transmission, and primary had to get dressed up before we could use them. Just so you know, I love Evolution engines, but I hate silver painted Evos. That was our starting point.
They can be as reliable as they come, if built correctly and properly maintained. I wanted more power than the stock configuration provides, while still using mostly Harley OEM performance offerings. My boss, Bill Sidman, and my very performance driven co-worker, Gabe Farfsing, suggested an entry level, reliable package that consisted of the SE64 cam, 1340 Pro performance Evo heads with matching high compression pistons. Once the cylinders were bored 10 over, it was a simple plug and play package. I didn’t need to peel my eyelids back, but I definitely wanted to, at least, get out of the way, in a hurry, if needed.
I tore the engine apart and began the performance upgrades and cosmetic reconditioning. We started by letting David Davis hit the bottom cases with one of his masterful textured black paint jobs.
David’s attention to detail and unwavering dedication to a quality finished product shows in everything he touches. My lessons continued with another Harley-Davidson mechanic’s inevitable fate, the Evolution base gasket.
I know many of you old timers will laugh at me because I am a rookie, and I haven’t built a thousand of these. Removing this gasket without using a power tool, for fear of making the surface uneven, is a serious endurance trial. I’m sure many of you could do it faster, but I had 2.5 hours per cylinder into properly clean them. Then we lap the base before reinstallation.
Once assembly was started, I pulled the timing cover and got another surprise.
Points can be reliable when used properly, but I wanted something a bit more modern. I decided a Crane Fireball would do just the trick. So once assembled, we ended up with this beautiful power plant.
Remember how I said the oil and fuel tanks wouldn’t line up with the pre drilled holes? Here’s how we decided to “make it work.”
This custom machined adapter moved the pre-drilled holes to where the oil tank mounts actually sat naturally.
Jimmy from Allied Machine in Oakland Park, Florida was singularly responsible for engineering and designing every machined part on this project. Another debt I’ll be forever grateful for and paying back for a long time going forward. This was his way to fix a tank that doesn’t want to line up.
The tank bolted on perfectly. I have to thank Dave and Mike at Hardcore Custom Coatings for an amazing interpretation of my idea for this paint and making it “Soulless Black.”
I’ve always been a huge fan of drag bars and forward controls, even though I’m only 5’9” and stumpy. I wanted to get that look while keeping the feel comfortable for me to ride….ALOT. These were ready for the over haul.
I had a 2009 Fat Bob after I wrecked on the Night Train, I fell in love with the Fat Bob pullback drag bars. When I installed them, the heights of the risers were too tall for the flat, low-slung look I was shooting for. Once over 3 inches were cut off, they were PERFECT.
I opted for Joker Machine’s hand controls and spacers because they gave me a super clean and adjustable set of hand controls.
I decided to use a takeoff Dakota Digital American Ironhorse speedometer cluster mounted to the headlamp nacelle. It looked clean while keeping the dash smooth. But now I needed a smooth dash. I looked everywhere for blank metal dashes and found not a single decent one. So, I went to see the Wiseleys at Custom Bikes of Fort Lauderdale for some help. Jack looked at what I had and knew just what to do.
A great customer of mine, when I worked at a Pompano dealership, was a machinist by trade and saw the 2006 Mustang GT I had built. He said it looked like the new Knight Rider or something out of a Transformers movie.
He machined a Deception logo out of scrap aluminum and gave it to me as a gift to mount on the grill. I couldn’t do it without damaging the billet grill, so it ultimately ended up in Jack’s hands at Custom Bikes for this dash.
They did a perfect job of channeling the spirit of that gift, while building a BADASS dash. It looked even better on black with fairing weather stripping installed.
I wanted to run as much stock sized Harley-Davidson parts as possible. That mantra became an issue. The rear fender was donated from a friend who changed the stock fender from his 2009 Cross Bones to a color matched Fat Boy fender. I was ready to install it when I realized that the rear fender struts were too narrow AND their OEM mounting holes didn’t line up once again with the pre drilled frame mounts. Jimmy to the rescue again. I can conceive these items, but it takes a special artist with metal and machines to bring them to life.
Those adapters allowed us to run the stock sized, late model, rear Softail fender. That, in turn, allowed me the option to use Harley-Davidson OEM detachable hardware for accessories, wiring harnesses and accessory LED rear tail lamp.
I have no pictures of the transmission because it was a 4-speed off of the donor that a friend said he could make it work in my application. He not only made it work, but machined it to accept a late model; twin cam 5- speed gear set with a splined shaft AND modified the starter mount to take a late model, high output touring starter.
Even better, the low profile oil tank allowed for a starter install and/or replacement only lowering the exhaust, pulling the open belt primary jackshaft cover, removing the jackshaft and two starter bolts. That’s a TON easier than removing the traditional stock Softail starter by opening the primary AND removing the oil tank and lines OR having to pull the rear wheel. So now, on to the primary drive set-up.
As fate would have it, at that time, my company still worked on police motorcycles. A Broward County Sheriff was building a motorcycle for his wife and bought her a BDL 3-inch open belt drive. Then he started getting a bit worried that she’d get herself caught in it. He asked if anyone would be willing to trade a closed primary, even exchange, for the new unopened belt drive. Um, yes please!
That move played hard on me, only because I’d never installed one before. Once the engine was secured and the transmission and trans plate were in place putting the inner primary plate on was a snap.
Thank god for Bandit and Bikernet (listen folks, I’m not kissing ass, they really answered my e-mails and pointed me in a direction that saved me a lot of headaches on this build). I searched for a BDL Primary install and read the tech article on Bikernet. If not I would have never thought to try this.
That article and the BDL Youtube videos helped me get this on a lot easier. But I still wanted this to be a direct reflection of me. I decided the belt guard would be one of those places.
I prepped the mounting studs.
I installed it and then asked Vasile Ciuperger to help with my custom engraving.
Then we installed it.Vasile also custom engraved the left side hand control spacer to look like a wedding band. JFFJ= Joel’s forever, forever Joel’s. For my first ever build, I can only hope so.
Now just the finishing pieces. James himself, from James Dean Custom Seats, came out to fit a saddle for her.
Awesome! He even figured I might want to bring a lady friend.
Between all of what was already needed, and what was added last minute like–The custom textured skirt that matches the front end-To the horn cover-and the black LED headlamp-
I can’t thank everyone involved enough. I can only hope to never disappoint any of you and ride this thing forever. Because this is a true Custom Vehicle Operation.
To every person whose life has touched mine, and in turn allowed me to touch another, I thank you all. I needed each and every one of you to build this, and I’m eternally grateful to you all daily.
BIKERNET EXTREME EVILUTION TECH CHART
Owner: Joel Mercado
Bike Name: Evilution
City/State: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Builders: Joel Mercado, Graham Weaver, Oscar Acosta, Shane Nardi, Steven Sabo, David Davis
E-mail: joel_mercado_76@Yahoo.com
Fabrication: Same as Builders
Manufacturing:
Welding: Allied Machine
Machining: Allied Machine
Engine
Year: 1990
Make: Harley-Davidson
Model: Was a Fat Boy now a Pro Street
Displacement: 80 cu in
Builder or Rebuilder: Joel Mercado, Graham Weaver, Shane Nardi
Cases: H-D
Case finish: Textured Black
Barrels: Stock H-D
Bore: +.10
Pistons: Screaming Eagle Pro High Compression Forged 1340
Barrel finish: Textured Black with highlighted fins
Lower end: Stock H-D
Stroke: Stock H-D
Rods: Stock H-D
Heads: Screaming Eagle Pro Evolution 1340
Head finish: Textured Black with highlighted fins
Valves and springs: Screaming Eagle
Pushrods: Screaming Eagle adjustable
Cams: Screaming Eagle SE-57
Lifters: Screaming Eagle
Carburetion: S&S Shorty E
Air cleaner: K&N
Exhaust: Vance and Hines Black Big Radius
Mufflers: Vance and Hines
Transmission
Year: 1990
Make: H-D
Gear configuration: Machined to fit TwinCam 5 speed gear
Final drive: 2008 Touring Cush Drive
Primary: BDL 3 inch open
Clutch: BDL
Frame
Year: 2003
Builder: Daytec
Style or Model: Gen2
Stretch:
Rake: 35 degree
Modifications:
Front End
Make: H-D
Model: 2008 Softail Triple Tree with 2008 Touring Legs
Year: 2008
Length: Stock Touring
Mods: Lower Legs Machined .0030 to center the Touring Brembo Calipers
Sheet metal
Tanks: Stock 1990 Softail Split Bob
Fenders: Front is a 2008 Police Road King
Rear is a 2009 Cross Bones
Oil tank: Low Profile for easy starter R&R
Other: Custom Dash by Custom Bikes of Fort Lauderdale
Paint
Sheet metal: Custom Coatings
Molding: Custom Coatings
Base coat:
Graphics: Custom Coatings
Type: PPG
Frame: Innovative Powdercoat
Graphics or art: Custom Coatings
Wheels
Front
Make: Stock H-D 2009 Touring
Size: 18
Brake calipers: H-D Brembo
Brake rotor(s): H-D Brembo
Tire: Dunlop
Rear
Make: Stock H-D 2009 Touring
Size: 16
Brake calipers: Modified 2006 Stock H-D Softail Rear
Brake rotor: 2006 H-D Softail Rear
Pulley: 2009 Touring Cush Drive Pulley
Tire: Dunlop 180
Controls
Foot controls: Found
Finish: Chrome
Master cylinder: Unknown
Brake lines: Front H-D Rear Custom Cut
Handlebar controls: Joker Machine
Finish: Satin Black
Clutch Cable: H-D Diamond Black
Brake Lines
Shifting: Foot
Kickstand: Modified Stock H-D
Electrical
Ignition: Crane
Ignition switch: Pollack Marine
Coils: Dyna
Regulator: Unknown
Charging: Stock H-D
Wiring: Custom harness by Graham Weaver
Harness: See Above
Headlight: H-D LED
Taillight: H-D LED
Accessory lights:
Electrical accessories:
Switches: Pingel
Battery: H-D
What’s Left
Seat: James Dean
Mirror(s): H-D tribal
Gas caps: Drag Specialties
Handlebars: Stock H-D Fat Bob bars with modified risers
Grips: Performance Machine
Pegs: Drag Specialties
Oil filter: H-D
Oil cooler: none
Oil lines: Black Rubber Hose
Fuel filter: Pingel In Line
Fuel Lines: Black Rubber Hose
Throttle cables: H-D Diamond Black
Fasteners: Mostly H-D Chromed
Specialty items: Custom machined rear fender strut adapters, fuel tank mounting adapter, rear master cylinder mount, Ignition switch and coil mount, risers, horn mount, lower fork legs and rear brake caliper.
Detailing by FJ’s Auto and Marine Salon www.fjsautoandmarinesalon.com
Comments:
Detailing Supplies provided by Jeff Telliard of Cycle Ice
Custom Engraving by Vasile Ciuperger
Credits:
Designed and assembled by Joel Mercado with a ton of help from Graham Weaver, Oscar Acosta, Shane Nardi, Steven Sabo, David Davis, Wayne Nitche, Stacey Beasley, Tim Lawler, Joey Simon and Sean Jones.
Special thanks to Chuck Montague for all of the help with my parts needs.
Extra special thanks to Bill Sidman for giving me the chance to build this and to Jeff Cheek and Shelly Rossmeyer-Pepe for allowing me to work in the field I’m so passionate about.
